SA exhibit rocks world
2002-11-11 16:23
Cape Town - Parliament launched a public exhibition of maps and rock art on Monday that, literally, aims to turn the world upside-down.
National Assembly Speaker Dr Frene Ginwala said on Monday it was hoped the exhibits would challenge South Africans to question the conventional wisdom about Africa.
"The idea is to take us beyond what we have been...brainwashed into believing we are."
Unless South Africans respected the validity of different perspectives of the world and history, they would continue to "battle about trivialities", she said, prior to a media tour of the exhibition, in the Old Assembly building.
The centerpiece of the Parliamentary Millenium Project is what is seen to be the earliest surviving map of the whole of Africa.
The map, known as "Da Ming Hun Yi Tu" - the Amalgamated Map of the Great Ming Empire - was created in 1389 by the Chinese, and predates European contact with this continent by more than 100 years.
The Chinese government agreed to allow parliament to digitise and reproduce a rare map, which is now being exhibited for the first time outside China.
The original was produced on silk and is 4.5m wide and 3.8m high and can be found in Beijing's First Historic Archive.
It is a derivative of an even earlier one dated 1320, which was believed to have been destroyed.
The exhibition also includes later maps showing the different ideas and perspectives held of Africa, such as European drawings dating from 1486 to 1759 that slowly give shape to a largely uncharted continent.
Some of the drawings illustrate dragons, snakes and one-eyed monsters in the inland regions.
Another exhibit shows how Africans used the sky as a map, and songs, stories and art to pass information from one generation to another.
There are also three globes, each trying to dispel what is commonly referred to as "north" and "south", putting South Africa both on top of the world and on the equator.
"There is no north and south in space," Ginwala said.
She added that traditional maps from around the 1600s all showed the Middle East as housing the "Garden of Eden", while scientific evidence suggested that Africa was the cradle of mankind.
Ginwala said South Africans had divided views on our society that were based largely on different experiences of history.
In this country, maps had always been used to exclude others, and to set up boundaries to protect.
"The project provides an opportunity to explore our different ideas and perspectives in order to enrich our society, rather than allow them to divide us," she said.
The exhibition is expected to end early next year.
- SAPA